Moluccas
/məˈlʌkəz/ proper noun
- proper noun An archipelago of Indonesia.
Synonyms
Maluku Malukus Maluku Islands Moluccan Islands Spice Islands
Etymology
From Maluku, thought to have been derived from the term used by Arab traders for the region, Arabic جَزِيرَات المَلِك (jazīrāt al-malik, literally “king islands”), from the word مَلِك (malik). However, since the name itself has been mentioned in a 14th-century Majapahit eulogy, Nagarakretagama, that predates the arrival of Islam in Maluku at the late fifteenth century, other sources claim that the name comes from a local language with the meaning "the head of a bull" or "the head of something large".
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “Moluccas”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details